WAAAGH! Greatest Hits

I wanted to compile some of my and others’ favorite posts from WAAAGH!, which are in danger of being buried by the sixteen posts or so I write every day. If you’re new to WAAAGH! and want to get a quick overview, this might be a great place to start.

• “One Small Death…” (3/14/08) – My very first post at WAAAGH!, which makes me all sorts of sentimental about it. See how it all began!
• “The Tome of Knowledge” (3/16/08) – Two days after starting the blog, I compiled and posted all of the info on the Tome I could find. It ended up being widely linked-to, and resulted in a huge boost for my traffic.
• “What’s In A Name?” (3/31/08) – Another popular read about naming your characters, including what NOT to do. I still consider this pretty relevant, especially if you’re stuck on thinking of a good name.
• “A Game of Greed” (4/13/08) – One of those articles I wished I had more readers around for when I originally posted it, I looked into how MMOs feed our greed.
• “The Warhammer Online That Almost Was” (4/21/08) – I did a bit of footwork over the old Climax work on Warhammer Online and drew up a history of the project.
• “It’s Story Time, Boys and Girls!” (4/28/08) – A long post about storytelling in MMORPGs.
• “The 10 Commandments of Altitis” (4/30/08) – Snafzg once said it best: “Massively never met a top 10 list they didn’t like”. So it was with this one, which got a nice fat link.
• “Warhammer Online FAQ (Part 1)” (5/21/08) – No, there never was a Part 2.
• “ChaosCast #1” (6/1/08) – The very first podcast of Keen, Snafzg and myself!
• “Now Who’s Cloning Who?” (6/8/08) – Starting with this article, I was seen as someone who called Blizzard out on blatant theft of ideas, which goes on to this day.
• “Stamp Out Bad Guild Names!” (6/9/08) – A companion piece to my earlier naming article, this one focusing on guild naming do-not’s.
• “50 Tidbits From Games Day 2008” (6/15/08) – I took a video interview from Games Day and broke it down into 50 points, which some folks apparently liked more than watching the whole thing.
• “The MMO Customer Bill of Rights” (6/18/08) – A pipe dream, but still a nice one.
• “It’s The End of the World as We Know It” (6/25/08) – The humble beginnings of CHRONO CHAOS, the best pretend time-traveling guild in the world!
• “I’m Feeling Snarky” (6/21/08), followed by “Richard Bartle Responds to WAR Accusations” (6/23/08) – Bartle’s quote about WAR blew up into a huge nerdstorm of blog controversy, and I was in the thick of it.
• “World of Warhammer – No, Really, It’s An Actual Book” (6/25/08) – A review of the 90’s tome, as well as speculation as to expansion races.
• “Seeing Through The System” (7/6/08) – A personal favorite, I talked about the danger of breaking a MMO down into mere numbers and parts, thus draining the joy from the game.
• “Jumping On The Bandwagon! …where’s my piccalo?” (7/6/08) – I’ve learned to be cautious about attaching myself to controversy, but sometimes I can’t help it. It was interesting to see Browncoat get shouted down for criticizing Mythic, and then seemingly vindicated by the major cuts a few days later.
• “Where Do We Go From Here?” (7/11/08) – A response to the then-announced career/capital city cuts. This article seemed to resonate with readers, so here ya go.
• “Why I Hate Elves” (7/16/08) – Wonder why I go off on elves a lot in this blog? Here’s why.
• “Regrets, I’ve Had A Few” (7/19/08) – A piece on making the switch from WoW to WAR, and the regret of leaving old friends behind in doing so.
• “LF Guild – Long Walks On Beach A Must” (7/28/08) – My standards for any guild I join. It’s great to know that two months later, I found a perfect match.
• “WAAAGH! Photo Contest” (8/5/08) – Incredibly creative photos of people screaming “waaagh!”
• “And Now We Play The Waiting Game. The Waiting Game Sucks, Let’s Play Hungry Hungry Hippos!” (8/5/08) – People liked my humorous jibe at Mythic’s delay in dropping the NDA.
• “Interested In Joining The Ranks of the WAR Bloggers?” (8/12/08) – Some thought this came off as a bit condescending, but I really was only interested in helping new bloggers get going.
• “Ask When” (8/14/08) – A parody poster for ChronoChaos, based off of the Casualties of War poster. Hey, I thought it was funny at least!
• “HUGE Announcement! It’s Finally Here!” (8/19/08) – People don’t like it so much when you pull their leg just as they’re all wound up about an event, I found.
• “First Impressions: Engineer” (8/20/08) – The first of 20 “First Impressions” articles, and my first steps inside WAR.
• “Interview with Lead Animator Jeremy Dale” (8/25/08) – I’m kind of proud of this interview, because I felt like I had to go through a lot just to get there to do it.
• “A Third Faction: How Could It Work?” (8/29/08) – Speculation is fun, particularly for the expansion.
• “Priorities. Balance. A Jedi Knows Not These Things” (9/3/08) – A lesson for even me to learn.
• “Unlocked: The Tome of Knowledge’s Greatest Achievements” (9/8/08) – One of my most widely-read articles, and yet hardly ever commented-upon.
• “Dude, Where’s My Gender?” (9/11/08) – Investigating the reason why Destruction is missing so many gender options.
• “Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya, tomorrow! You’re only a day away!” (9/13/08) – On the eve of WAR’s launch, I had a few appreciative comments for the dev team.
• “Cloak of Darkness” (9/15/08) – My first big adventure with a guild in WAR!
• “The Race” (9/18/08) – Another popular article, concerning the pressure of leveling fast to keep up with friends or the crowd.
• “Syp’s Altdorf or Bust Tour – Part 1” (9/19/09) and “Part 2” (9/20/08) – Probably some of the most work I’ve ever done for an article, and certainly my most graphic-laden one.
• “On PvP” (9/14/08) and “On PvE” (9/23/08) – A pair of companion pieces about my first week impressions of these aspects of the game.
• “The Golden Rule” (9/23/08) – Some disagreed and thought me harsh, but I had no problem laying out what I saw was at the root of the gold farming/selling/buying epidemic.
• “If Wishes Were Horses” (9/24/08) – Notable because this off-the-cuff idea was applauded by Mark Jacobs!